# Erlitou
## English
### Alternative forms

* Erh-li-t'ou (Wade–Giles)

### Etymology

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 二里頭 (Èrlǐtóu, literally “two Li head”).

### Proper noun

Erlitou
* A Bronze Age culture along the Yellow River in China
** [1979, Katheryn McAllister Linduff, “Local Styles”, in Tradition, Phase and Style of Shang and Chou Bronze Vessels‎, Garland Publishing, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 111:Of the other Honan sites reported since 1954 which have been assigned to the Erh-li-t'ou culture, none are as rich as Erh-li-t'ou itself.]
** 1987, Jessica Rawson, “Introduction”, in Chinese Bronzes: Art and Ritual‎, British Museum Publications, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 9:At present the direct antecedents of the sophisticated cast vessels from Erlitou-period tombs excavated at Yanshi near Luoyang remain undiscovered.
** 1999 September 17, Paul Richard, “China's Timeless Treasures”, in The Washington Post‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 October 2023‎:Not so very long ago, the Xia and the Shang, legendary dynasties of the distant past, were regarded by most scholars as pleasing, misty fantasies, as sweetly insubstantial as Camelot or Shangri-La. Not anymore. A small turquoise plaque made 3,800 years ago by the culture known as Erlitou is now thought to be a Xia piece.
** 2016 August 4, Nicholas Wade, “Scientific Evidence of Flood May Give Credence to Legend of China’s First Dynasty”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 August 2016‎:Dr. Wu’s team said its reconstruction of the outburst flood from the Jishi Gorge showed that the ancient textual accounts of the Great Flood “may well be rooted in a historic natural event.” The finding also supports the idea, the researchers say, that archaeological remains found at Erlitou, a site about 1,550 miles downstream from the gorge, may have been the Xia capital, given that the Erlitou culture dates to 1900 B.C., the same time as the Jishi Gorge flood.
* A village in Yanshi district, Luoyang, Henan, China.
** 1975 November, Nai Hsia, “The Slaves Were the Makers of History—New archaeological finds on ancient Chinese slave society”, in China Reconstructs‎, volume XXIV, number 11, China Welfare Institute, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 40, column 2:Continued excavation at the Shang dynasty site at Erlitou in Yenshih county, Honan province, has yielded more finds of importance.
** 2006, Robert L. Thorp, Visiting China's Past: A Guide to Sites and Resources‎, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 67–68:Most Chinese archaeologists believe that a site called Erlitou near Luoyang was for a time a Xia capital. If one takes the traditional commentaries and texts seriously, Erlitou was certainly at the right place and the right time to be a Xia capital.
** 2016 August 4, Nicholas Wade, “Scientific Evidence of Flood May Give Credence to Legend of China’s First Dynasty”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 August 2016‎:Dr. Wu’s team said its reconstruction of the outburst flood from the Jishi Gorge showed that the ancient textual accounts of the Great Flood “may well be rooted in a historic natural event.” The finding also supports the idea, the researchers say, that archaeological remains found at Erlitou, a site about 1,550 miles downstream from the gorge, may have been the Xia capital, given that the Erlitou culture dates to 1900 B.C., the same time as the Jishi Gorge flood.
** 2017 July 14, Thomas Bird, “The rise and fall of Luoyang, China’s forgotten capital”, in South China Morning Post‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on July 15, 2017, Long Reads‎:The excavation of a 2,000-year-old palace in the village of Erlitou, Yanshi county – which has since been recovered as farmland – led to the site being identified as Zhengxun, the last capital of the Xia, by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This sparked both excitement and scepticism throughout the academic world.

#### Translations
### Further reading

* Erlitou, Erh-li-t'ou at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.